College Prep English 9 Final Exam Study Guide
Overview of the Final Exam
Total Points: The exam is worth a total of points.
Time Duration: The total time allotted for the exam is .
Structure and Timing Guide:
Part 1: Multiple-choice section consisting of questions. It is worth points. Recommended time: .
Part 2: Longer essay section where students choose one of two prompts. The essay should be paragraphs long. It is worth points. Recommended time: .
Critical Guidance: The essay is worth more than half the total grade. Students are cautioned that every minute spent on multiple choice beyond minutes reduces the time available for the higher-stakes essay.
Texts Covered: The exam covers three specific texts: Auscultation, The Alchemist, and Our Secret Latin Heartlands.
Expectations: Memorization of exact quotes is not required. However, students must understand the arguments well enough to write about them effectively. Preparation relies on careful reading, honest discussion, and engagement with writing throughout the semester.
Vocabulary for the Final Exam
Abate:
Definition: To reduce in intensity or amount; to lessen.
Example Sentence: The noise from the rescue drills did not abate for days as workers listened for any sign of life below.
Cacophony:
Definition: A harsh overwhelming mixture of sounds.
Example Sentence: The cacophony of drilling machines, seismic devices, and shouted commands filled the air above the mine.
Dauntless:
Definition: Fearless and determined; not discouraged by difficulty.
Example Sentence: Jacinto Corona was dauntless in his effort to bring Spanish radio to Grand Island, collecting signatures through the Nebraska winter.
Ephemeral:
Definition: Lasting for only a short time; fleeting.
Example Sentence: Santiago feared that his dream of reaching the Pyramids was ephemeral and that it would vanish before he could act on it.
Fervent:
Definition: Having or showing passionate intensity.
Example Sentence: Coelho writes with a fervent belief that the universe rewards those who pursue their Personal Legend.
Gregarious:
Definition: Fond of company; sociable and outgoing.
Example Sentence: Ben Reed was gregarious by nature and thrived on conversation, finding his community in the Spanish-speaking world of rural Idaho.
Harangue:
Definition: A long aggressive or forceful speech.
Example Sentence: The Alchemist never harangues Santiago with lectures. Instead he asks questions and lets the boy find his own answers.
Impetuous:
Definition: Acting quickly without thinking; rash.
Example Sentence: The character made an impetuous decision that he would regret for the rest of the story.
Lethargic:
Definition: Lacking energy; sluggish and slow to respond.
Example Sentence: A student who approaches the final exam in a lethargic way, without reviewing or preparing, will not perform well.
Meticulous:
Definition: Showing great attention to detail; very careful and precise.
Example Sentence: Church is meticulous in describing the stethoscope, noting its cold metal diaphragm, flexible tubing, and chrome-plated ear tubes.
Auscultation by Steven Church
Genre and Form: This is a "lyric essay" titled "Four Chambers." Unlike a standard straight argument, it moves between subjects, weaving three distinct threads: trapped miners, the history/authority of the stethoscope, and personal experiences of hearing children's heartbeats.
Structural Metaphor: The essay is divided into four "chambers," mirroring the four internal chambers of the human heart.
The Four Chambers
Chamber 1: Crandall Canyon, Utah ():
Event: Six miners are trapped underground following a massive cave-in.
Rescue Efforts: Rescuers drill boreholes and use dynamite charges to signal workers. They use seismic devices to listen but hear nothing.
Tragedy: Three rescue workers are killed in a subsequent collapse. The mine is eventually sealed permanently with the six original miners presumed dead inside.
Chamber 2: The Stethoscope Examination:
Focus: Church addresses the reader as "you," drawing them into the physical experience of being examined.
Argument: He posits that the stethoscope provides knowledge of the body that hands and ears alone cannot reach.
Chamber 3: History and the Fetal Heartbeat:
History: Traces the evolution from Rene Laennec’s original paper to modern electronic scopes.
Personal: Church recounts hearing his children’s heartbeats via a fetal heart monitor, arguing his fatherly identity was not fully formed until that auditory moment.
Chamber 4: Quecreek Mine, Pennsylvania ():
Event: Nine miners are trapped by rising water.
Survival: The miners pound on roof bolts. A surface drill operator breaks through and listens, hearing rhythmic hammering—"the sole musical evidence of survival."
Outcome: The miners are successfully rescued, serving as a direct contrast to the tragedy in Chamber .
Central Arguments and Themes
The Practical and the Moral: Listening is both a skill and a human act with emotional and moral weight. Technology makes connection possible rather than replacing it.
Contrast as Emotional Spine: The opposite outcomes of Crandall Canyon and Quecreek highlight that listening is an act of hope with no guaranteed results.
Identity Through Listening: Using the fetal heartbeat example, Church argues that identity is partly formed through sensory perception and recognition of another life.
Key Terms and Passages
Auscultation: The act of listening to internal body sounds via a stethoscope.
Rene Laennec: Invented the stethoscope in .
Fetal heart monitor: Electronic device used to hear an unborn child.
Geophone: Seismic listening device used in rescues.
Key Passage (Lines ): "The intimate instrument, the stethoscope, knows your body in a way your own hands and ears never can." This represents the argument that technology provides access to others and ourselves that we cannot achieve alone.
Practice Questions & Guidance
Emotional difference between Chambers 1 and 4: Chamber represents failed listening and loss; Chamber represents successful listening and rescue. Combined, they show listening is an act of hope and moral weight, regardless of the outcome.
Identity as a Father: Church felt the heartbeat was the first evidence of his child as a separate living being rather than an abstraction. Technology extended his perception to recognize life.
Stethoscope Symbolism: It symbolizes medical authority, professional identity, and the trust/permission required for a patient to allow a doctor access to private physical information.
Structural Choice of "Chambers": This mirrors the heart structure, suggesting the essay itself is a living organism where all sections are interconnected.
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Genre: Philosophical novel.
The Journey Arc
Beginning: Santiago, a Spanish shepherd, has recurring dreams of treasure at the Egyptian Pyramids. He meets the King of Salem, who explains the "Personal Legend."
Early Middle: Santiago travels to Morocco and is robbed. He spends nearly a year working for a crystal merchant (), saves money, and learns the "principle of favorability."
Middle: He joins a Sahara caravan, meets and falls in love with Fatima at an oasis, and encounters the Alchemist who guides him. He must eventually "become the wind."
End: Santiago reaches the Pyramids but finds nothing and is beaten by thieves. One thief mentions a dream of treasure under a sycamore tree in Spain. Santiago returns home to find the treasure exactly where he started.
Key Themes
Fear: Defined as the greatest obstacle to the Personal Legend. The crystal merchant represents the cost of fear—he never fulfilled his dream of going to Mecca.
Personal Destiny: The Personal Legend is everyone's specific purpose; the universe "conspires" to help those pursuing it.
Transformation: Santiago shifts from a passive dreamer to an active seeker, culminating in his merging with the elements (becoming the wind).
Love and Sacrifice: Santiago's love for Fatima is tested against his journey; he learns that a man who abandons his legend for comfort will eventually grow restless.
Character Analysis
Santiago: Protagonist whose willingness to face fear distinguishes him from others.
The Crystal Merchant: A warning of a life lived without pursuing a legend; a good man whose life is ultimately hollow because of comfort and fear.
Fatima: Santiago's love who understands his need to fulfill his legend.
The Alchemist: A wise guide who provides questions rather than direct answers.
The King of Salem: The catalyst who introduces the Personal Legend.
Christian Worldview Comparison
Agreement: Both suggest every person has a specific calling and that pursuit of purpose has moral weight.
Disagreement: Coelho attributes the organizing force to the "Universe," whereas a Christian view attributes it to a personal God. Christian thought also questions if all human desires are trustworthy guides to a calling.
Practice Questions & Guidance
Treasure in Spain: The treasure was always at home, but the journey was necessary for Santiago to develop the ability to recognize it.
Becoming the Wind: Represents Santiago speaking the "language of the world" and merging with forces larger than himself.
Our Secret Latin Heartlands by Hector Tobar
Genre: Narrative journalism from the book Translation Nation ().
Author Note: Tobar is the son of Guatemalan immigrants and a Pulitzer Prize winner. He documents how Latino culture reshapes the American interior.
The Five Sections
Section 1: Ben Reed (Rupert, Idaho): Reed is a white Mormon man who adopted a Latino identity in Argentina. He runs a Spanish-language radio station for farmworkers, showing identity is not solely about blood.
Section 2: Black Beans (Michigan): Once a hidden staple of Tobar's mother, black beans became Michigan's top crop due to Latino consumer demand.
Section 3: Corn Tortillas (Nebraska): A facility in Nebraska (O'Malley Grain) supplies tortilla makers in California, connecting midwestern farmers to East LA kitchens.
Section 4: Jacinto Corona (Grand Island, Nebraska): Corona and Oscar Erives organized to get Spanish airtime on KMMJ radio, collecting over signatures. Corona compares lacking news in one's language to "living in a jail."
Section 5: Liberal, Kansas: Jose Gutierrez works in a beef plant for . Mayor Neiwerth admits the town's economy depends on Hispanic labor.
Overall Argument and Key Figures
Arguments: America is already bicultural; Latino demand drives agriculture; Latino labor sustains rural economies; immigrant communities build their own infrastructure.
Key Figures:
Ben Reed: Represents identity permeability.
Jacinto Corona: Represents collective agency.
Mayor Neiwerth: Provides strategic confirmation of dependency from inside the established system.
Jose Gutierrez: Represents invisible labor.
Practice Questions & Guidance
Language Access as a Right: Tobar argues receiving news in one's language is a civil right, not a luxury.
The Black Bean Story: Reveals how American mainstream culture absorbs immigrant demand and tradition, often without acknowledging the source.
Figurative Language Review
Metaphor: Direct comparison without "like" or "as." (e.g., "The stethoscope knows your body").
Simile: Comparison using "like" or "as." (e.g., "The drill punches like an amnio needle").
Personification: Human qualities to non-human things. (e.g., "The alive mountain").
Imagery: Sensory language. (e.g., "The hypnotic pump of organs").
Extended Metaphor: A metaphor sustained across a work. (e.g., Church’s "Four Chambers" structure).
Symbolism: Objects representing larger meanings. (e.g., Stethoscope as medical authority/trust).
Writing Review and Essay Tips
CEC Structure
Claim (): A clear, single sentence stating an argument/position (not a summary).
Evidence (): A specific moment, quote, or detail introduced with context.
Commentary (): sentences explaining the significance of the evidence.
Essay Strategies
Thesis Statement: Must take a specific position.
Formula: In [text], [author] argues that [claim], showing that [significance].
Mistakes to Avoid:
Do not start with "I am going to argue."
Do not drop quotes without introduction.
Do not replace argument with plot summary.
Do not end a paragraph with a quote.
Conclusions: Zoom out to the real world or personal beliefs. Do not just repeat the thesis.
Questions & Discussion
Q: What do Church and Tobar suggest about invisible communities?
A: Both suggest these communities possess vital identity and agency that mainstream America depends on but often fails to acknowledge until a crisis (like a mine collapse) or economic necessity occurs.
Q: Which word captures Santiago's fear that his dream will vanish?
A: Ephemeral.